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M2 MacBook Air or M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14” dilemma

M2 MacBook Air vs M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14”

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erasr said:
Neither is better but the Air is beautifully portable and faster on day to day tasks.

I've never used a laptop on the sofa or in bed so much as I do with this M2 Air. It's just so nice to hold and walk around with. Just couldn't imagine doing that as easily or nicely with the thicker, heavier Pro.
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Perfect! Enjoy it in your use-case.

I use the laptop on the table 99% (work, home, hotels, airport lounges) of time. I admit Air is close to what Macbook 12 used to be, but not quite. For me "portability" starts below 1kg. Above this it lives in my backpack and on tables.

And I do clearly see the difference between displays. Not in movies but starting with the mouse pointer.
 
erasr said:
Loving that none of you can barely see the difference in screen quality :). That kind of comment pisses the Pro owners off no end!

One thing I will say is that black levels aren't great on the Air, but only if you're watching something in a dark room.
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Interesting comment about barely seeing any difference but then in the last sentence you can... ;)


Regaring M2 speed, can anyone give any specific situations and measured difference in seconds between M2 and M1 Pro CPU? Or a video side by side showing the difference between the two (I'm not talking about that speedometer 2.0 test program but actual difference) ? Sounds like some of you are "seeing" noticeable difference.
 
0906742 said:
Interesting comment about barely seeing any difference but then in the last sentence you can... ;)


Regaring M2 speed, can anyone give any specific situations and measured difference in seconds between M2 and M1 Pro CPU? Or a video side by side showing the difference between the two (I'm not talking about that speedometer 2.0 test program but actual difference) ? Sounds like some of you are "seeing" noticeable difference.
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See this video for some excellent comparisons. She demonstrates the M2 Air side-by-side with her M1 14" MBP, with Photoshop editing and loading of a fairly complicated website (Google Earth). The M2 Air is noticeably faster.

 
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0906742 said:
Interesting comment about barely seeing any difference but then in the last sentence you can... ;)


Regaring M2 speed, can anyone give any specific situations and measured difference in seconds between M2 and M1 Pro CPU? Or a video side by side showing the difference between the two (I'm not talking about that speedometer 2.0 test program but actual difference) ? Sounds like some of you are "seeing" noticeable difference.
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It only took him like 40 posts to finally admit the Pro screen was better. His incessant screen falsehoods has been the dumbest part of this whole thread. The Pro has a better screen. The Air weighs less. Simple facts. There are a bunch of legitimate reasons to get a MBA 2 over a Pro. The screen is the main reason I'm considering the Pro. Other than form factor the value for dollar heavily favors the Pro based on Best Buy's current prices. Nearly all the other advantages like multiscreen, more ports, faster read and write speeds are not really relevant for me. I like the form factor more on the MBA 2 and that sweet Midnight color - fingerprints be damned. The thing is I'm a screen snob pure and simple. I'm a film buff who has always went for the best consumer screen quality. I like the 120 HZ capabilities and I like real blacks. I'm having a hard time stepping back from that even as I am looking at my Mid 2014 15" Retina MBP screen that is worse than the new MBA 2 and it's not bothering me in the least. Now that I'm about to spring a few grand it has become a bit of an issue though. If the MBA 2 had the same screen then most of this thread would not exist and there would be another one ripping Apple for the poor battery life because the Mini-LED screen uses more power.

James
 
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Chateaunole-du-Pape said:
See this video for some excellent comparisons. She demonstrates the M2 Air side-by-side with her M1 14" MBP, with Photoshop editing and loading of a fairly complicated website (Google Earth). The M2 Air is noticeably faster.
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Noticeable faster? I would not draw any conclusion from that. Too many variables, like if the key to start the test was pressed exactly the same time. Also seems like Pro has Adblock plus running while test where Air does not! Another possibility is simply internet connection, it may not give equal bandwidth for both at the same time.

In Photoshop again matters if the key to start was pressed exactly the same time. Seems like they were equal speed but image was larger in MBP so that it has one more row to process. See the video in slow (0.25x speed) motion and count the rows they process.
 
I am sure most of the smart Apple consumers here understand the idea in marketing of "perceived value"?

Apple uses features in its devices at certain price points to add perceived value to edge it's customers up the price ladder. They have used psychology studies and focus groups to find out what people value most and incrementally offer more as you step up the price ladder. All of the features they talk about in various models are the ways they use to entice people to buy something more expensive than they need by exaggerating their wants and making pricing close between models to nudge people to say well it is only a couple hundred dollars more to get xyz and that is a better value than abc because of the perceived value.

When buying anything expensive it is always good to get your needs and wants very clear. Car dealerships use this to an art.

I find many of the comments about M2 Air vs M1 Pro 14" to fall into this perceived value trap and the many people who so convincingly argue that to get the most value you must spend the most money to get the device with the most features and "value". It almost seems to get anything other than the M1 Pro 14" is just foolish and those who get the air are simply wasting their money even though they are actually spending less. Because even if they spend less they are getting poor value compared to the more expensive pro models.

People I think need to keep in mind the needs of the consumer over the wants. Everyone wants Promotion, Mini Led, multiple ports, better gpu, more cores and on and on. But not everyone needs those things and actually their needs of longer battery life and lower weight and portability might be more important to them. They may never need any of the Pro features and unless side by side might not even notice the difference. This is not to say there isn't a difference but that they really don't need those differences.

I also hear a lot of people saying that they want to future proof by buying more features aka value. Let me give a little secret. Your device is outdated the moment it is produced and in your hands as development for a newer and better device is under way before production on the device you have. The entire tech industry survives simply by planned obsolescence and Apple is the king of giving people enough to buy now while holding back a lot so they can introduce a new feature in the next device.

This is why buying for your needs now and not your wants or future use cases that might come up. Apple and others are actively figuring out how to make your new device obsolete so they can sell you a new one. There is nothing you can do. Either be happy without some new feature you can't even conceive of now or buy the next new device.

SO my point to all of this is it is not stupid to buy a M2 MBA over and M1 14" MBP if you are not going to use most of the advanced features and really won't notice the differences in day to day life why pay for them? Why not buy a MBA M2 with just enough to be comfortable now. Then when the next new feature comes out you will have a device that is more sellable because it is more mainstream and you will lose less money at resale on something that costs less. More people are willing to buy at lower price points than higher used. So that means if you sell your M2 air in a couple years you will get enough resale value to put toward the new device. You will never have an outdated device or feel like you are missing out because the latest base model processor is several times faster than yesterdays fastest.

My humble advice is to buy what you need and nothing more, enjoy what you have and don't feel so identified with it. If it sucks you didn't lose that much money and can easily get something else BUT if you find out that by buying just what you need it actually does everything you need and you didn't waste your money then and only then did you get the BEST value. Specs and Pricing are a game used to manipulate your emotions to impulse buy. Then you convince yourself that the extra money was worth it and get offended at any notion that you are wrong or something better is available for less than you paid for your future proof machine which is now after a couple years not so future proof.

At the end of the day non of these devices are a value unless they fit your use case and even then their are always alternatives that are cheaper.

I think this entire thread boils down to perceived value because if you need a Pro device you wouldn't even ask the question of what you should buy as you would know you already need a Pro device for your use case. People just don't want to regret a choice based on the best value at the moment but prices always change and what is a good price now is a bad price in just a short while.

Get what you need and be happy. Don't let other people's idea of value affect your decision. Figure out what you need and what you don't. Figure out what you want and how much you will really need it and buy accordingly. Sometimes we just want something and we know we don't need it and that is okay too but understand once you go into the territory of wants it is an endless journey always being tempted by the next want that will always entice you to spend more.
 
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Well I'm at the end of my 14-day return window for my 14" MBP and I'm keeping it. I did not have a hands-on experience with the m2 MBA but I did love my m1 MBA. The attraction for me about the 14" really has been the screen, speakers and the battery life. I'm not a power user but I find the 14" much lighter than people claim. I got my teenager and M2 and I expect she'll love it and it will serve her well. Despite this WAY too long thread.... both computers are great and will likely serve the user very well over a long period of time.

Good luck to you Air buyers as well as us 14"ers...
 
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Technerd108 said:
Why not buy a MBA M2 with just enough to be comfortable now. Then when the next new feature comes out you will have a device that is more sellable because it is more mainstream and you will lose less money at resale on something that costs less. More people are willing to buy at lower price points than higher used.
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One thing I noticed when I was selling my MBA M1, was that the market for flooded with used M1 MBA's, so to sell it you need to sell it for a low price. I was lucky to be on the market early and I got acceptable price for mine but it still took pretty long to sell it. With my previous MBP 13" Intel (it was around same age by that time as my MBA M1 was now) and it was selling fast but price took also quite a hit but it was due to M1 just coming to market.

So I'm thinking it would be easier to sell MBP 14" base for say 1k (50% of what I paid for it) after couple of years from now than MBA M2 base (8/256) for 750 (again about 50% of the new unit price). I'm pretty sure 2x ram and 2xssd looks worth extra 250 for the possible buyers. Price examples are roughly current Euro prices (where MBP has already considerable discount and no discounts for MBA M2 yet).
 
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I think the M2 MBA with 512gb ssd and 16gb ram is the sweet spot and the one that will be most desirable. I agree a base model would be harder to sell because they sell those the most. That is why I said comfortable with now and not base model. Also 50% is a big hit on a device that costs more. If you took a 50% hit on an m1 air base that is what $500 vs. $1000. M2 air 1200 base and 50% is $600 so no matter how you slice it you would save more reselling the air vs the pro and if you spec up the M1 Pro that even more money lost.

Of course my feeling is buy what you need and don't worry about it. Buy a little of what you want and mostly what you need. If you need the M1 Pro then keep it and be happy and don't worry about resale.

Right now you can buy a new M1 MBP 14" for $1599 in USA at Costco and Bestbuy. I imagine that the sales might be even lower during Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving in USA where they have the deepest discounts usually. Also the M1 MBP will most likely have competition from a new M2 MBP announced during that time and released in December or early 2023 which would drive prices down even further. So if you are looking at resale currently I am not sure people would even pay $1000 for the base M1 MBP in a year or so. Europe is a different market and I am totally ignorant of pricing there.

All I am saying as a general and sometimes unreliable rule is the higher you spend on a device the more you lose at time of resale. Timing is very important in this and depending on discounts you may get that others are not privy to that equation might not always hold true but mostly and generally it does.

People are fickle and buying used can be a hard market for selling electronic devices. I have done it for many years and I win some and lose some. You never know. Mostly I try to buy as low as I can so mid product cycle to early mid and on sale or some kind of discount if possible with middle specs. I try to keep the device in as close to mint condition as possible and most of the time I don't lose too much. I would say about 30-40% most of the time and a few times around 10-15%.
 
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@Thchnerd108, You’re right, but only if you’re planing to resale it after 1-2 years. Dont forget that many people keeping these devices for 5+ years (some even up to 10…), so they seeing the value of paying now for extra power/memory/storage, and once its time to get new device they dont care about resale value.

In the end, the best value is based on your needs and how long you planing to keep the device For.
 
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Zest28 said:
The 14” MBP is cheaper than the M2 MBA now. You got to be crazy not to take the 14” MBP. It is a steal at $1599.
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I don't need - or even really want - any of the features that the 14" Pro offers above and beyond the M2 Air. Moreover, with EDU pricing and the $150 gift card promotion, I got the M2 Air with 16GB and 1TB of storage -twice what I'd get with the 14" Pro you cite - for effectively $1,509. And I DO have use for both the extra storage and the M2's lighter weight.
 
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0906742 said:
Noticeable faster? I would not draw any conclusion from that. Too many variables, like if the key to start the test was pressed exactly the same time. Also seems like Pro has Adblock plus running while test where Air does not! Another possibility is simply internet connection, it may not give equal bandwidth for both at the same time.

In Photoshop again matters if the key to start was pressed exactly the same time. Seems like they were equal speed but image was larger in MBP so that it has one more row to process. See the video in slow (0.25x speed) motion and count the rows they process.
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Her testing appears quite thorough. Moreover, she owns the 14" Pro. What would be her motive for saying that the M2 is, indeed, slightly but nonetheless noticeably faster?

I have seen multiple other reviews make the same general observations: for single-threaded tasks, the M2 Air is faster than the M1 Pro, and the difference, while perhaps not massive, is noticeable.

Meanwhile, can you find any reviews, video or otherwise, that assert the opposite? I have yet to see one.
 
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Chateaunole-du-Pape said:
Her testing appears quite thorough. Moreover, she owns the 14" Pro. What would be her motive for saying that the M2 is, indeed, slightly but nonetheless noticeably faster?

I have seen multiple other reviews make the same general observations: for single-threaded tasks, the M2 Air is faster than the M1 Pro, and the difference, while perhaps not massive, is noticeable.

Meanwhile, can you find any reviews, video or otherwise, that assert the opposite? I have yet to see one.
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I don't know why everyones got such a hard on for this pro vs air debate. They make two different style laptops for a reason, because everyone has different needs. People assume that because it has pro beside its name that it must be the best product for everyone.

As you're witnessing, even with clear video evidence showing that yes the air can excel in certain areas better than the pro, people continue to be in disbelief.
 
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1BadManVan said:
I don't know why everyones got such a hard on for this pro vs air debate. They make two different style laptops for a reason, because everyone has different needs. People assume that because it has pro beside its name that it must be the best product for everyone.

As you're witnessing, even with clear video evidence showing that yes the air can excel in certain areas better than the pro, people continue to be in disbelief.
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but who is the air for college kids? how about professionals?
 
tim1000 said:
but who is the air for college kids? how about professionals?
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It depends on your profession. My wife works from home as a project manager for her company, her uses could easily be handled by a MacBook Air, she uses windows because its familiar to her but she's getting tempted to make the jump because her current laptop keeps her glued to a wall plug in.

Plenty of professions that use basic cheap windows laptops that are far slower in every way to a MacBook Air. I find the pro line up is much more niche and use case specific to actually take advantage of the extra sustained horsepower. Majority of professions out there are not doing video rendering and creative work. So while its still a large and growing field, most people use computers for office work, video conferencing etc. that could be handled by most basic laptops, and the M series Airs are definitely well above average performance compared to 95% of the work laptops out there today.

People just way overthink all of this and are too busy reading the spec sheets and benchmarks instead of just actually using the laptop for their everyday workflow and see how they actually do.
 
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🤦🏻‍♂️ Highly frustrating.

I'll repeat; you can barely see the difference in display quality between the M2 Air vs M1 Pro in everyday use. For example, viewing websites, being on work apps like Teams, video calls, Keynote, whatever.

The only time I can see a real distinct difference is in movies with HDR content. I said the black levels are better on the Pro but I also said how often do you really watch movies on a laptop?

99% of the time it's the everyday browsing, working and apps. Which, once again, is where I'm saying there's barely any difference.

If someone of you want to latch onto my point about the Pro being better in HDR content, go for it, whatever makes you happy! What I've repeatedly said is that's the only time the display is distinctly better. Minimal time.
 
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dizmonk said:
Well I'm at the end of my 14-day return window for my 14" MBP and I'm keeping it. I did not have a hands-on experience with the m2 MBA but I did love my m1 MBA. The attraction for me about the 14" really has been the screen, speakers and the battery life. I'm not a power user but I find the 14" much lighter than people claim. I got my teenager and M2 and I expect she'll love it and it will serve her well. Despite this WAY too long thread.... both computers are great and will likely serve the user very well over a long period of time.

Good luck to you Air buyers as well as us 14"ers...
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Good for you. I believe you made the right decision. I love reading all the back and forth...sounds like a bunch of playground kids 💇‍♂️
 
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Dealmans said:
14" doesn't have light bleed
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No it has blooming. I don’t care what people say it is an issue and certain types of content look really weird because of the blooming. Like fuzzy or smeared. Hard to explain.

The 14” has a better screen but as has been mentioned in daily use it would be hard to actually see the difference unless the two are side by side.

Promotion is great but again not that noticeable in daily use between the two.

By specs the 14” is better but it will soon be eclipsed by the new 14” M2 MBP. Of course the new model most likely will have a slight price increase or stay the same with no discount and then the value equation is a lot different.

If you like the M1 MBP 14”, you should because it was the best MBP Apple has probably ever made.

But comparing it to an air seems rather unfair and the fact that the air is even as fast as or in some cases faster than the M1 pro is pretty amazing in its own. No one would have ever thought to compare an Intel Air with an Intel Pro because the performance gap was so huge. Now with Apple silicon we have a 14” MBP that is pretty much as fast as the 16” and an air that is closer to the Pro models than ever before.

The truth is that the Pro will always be better in terms of screen, ports, and raw power and it should be because it is designed for pro level use. It also costs significantly more and when the new M2 MBP 14” comes out it will cost significantly more than the M2 air.

What is amazing is an air device without a fan can actually do some heavy lifting. Add a laptop cooler for $20 and it is even better. That was not even a consideration a few years ago.

Now if you want to use a 2 year old chip going to be 3 year old chip very soon for next few years with a lower single core score that is up to you. The air M2 multi core score is not too far off from the base model 8 core 14” and has a faster single core which matters most for an air type device.

I can’t wait to see what kind of performance gains the new MacBook Pro with M2 are going to have. It is going to be significantly better than M1. Probably a 30% better gpu performance at the same core number across the board. Depending on if they add more cpu cores a cpu uptick of 10-30% if they add more cores. And that higher single core score.
 
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Air_M1 said:
Do you know the M2 clock speed is higher M1, right?
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It also has faster efficiency cores and a better gpu.

Higher clock speeds are better. Specially in a pro machine with active cooling and heat pipes.

It is also on a better and more advanced 5nm process node. I would have preferred 4nm but it is still faster than M1.
 
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